Making Sense of the Osborne Family Spectacle of Lights

It’s the right time of year to make another trip to Disney’s Hollywood Studios to see the Osborne Family Spectacle of Lights.

Osborne Family of Lights

Imagine a city block filled with strings of Christmas lights. Actually, you don’t have to imagine it. Just go to Google Image and search on the phrase “Osborne Family Spectacle of Lights” and you’ll see exactly how it looks. In fact, I’ll save you that step. The vast majority of the photos you’ll see in that image search look very much like the one below.

Look closely at the crowd in the bottom of the photo and you’ll see a few folks grabbing that snapshot with their camera. The reason is understandable. It’s sensory overload. Lights are blinking on and off , other lights are spinning in circles. There’s a thunderous sound system berating your ears with Holiday music. Meanwhile, someone in that crowd is kicking your ankles or hitting your knees with a baby stroller.

You just gotta let the folks back home know about this place!

Capturing all of those sensory experiences – the motion, the sound, the pain in your ankles – is really a very difficult thing to do. When someone looks at a photo from your perspective standing in the middle the street, it just doesn’t reel them into the image. They don’t here the music or see the blinking lights. It’s a snapshot of a spectacle that they missed. At best, this photo triggers some memories for people who’ve already been there. Even then, they’ll say “You had to be there.”

Why fight that kind of uphill battle with your photos? Instead of competing with over a million results of mostly the same image, why not try for something a bit more unique?

While everyone is watching the blinking lights on the main street, there are a bunch of little street scenes just waiting for you to compose and capture without any interference. Each one has its own story to tell.

Sometimes the pieces are more interesting than the entire puzzle. [Click to Tweet]

How many times have you gone to take photos at some place or event that was just overwhelming your sense? Instead of trying to capture the entire thing in one shot, pick little pieces that tell the story. You’ll end up with something more interesting and powerful.

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